Applied TCT not a (proto)typical frim

As president of Applied Time Compression Technologies Inc., Stephen Kulan's job is to bring products to market faster. With the newest technology in "rapid prototyping" through printers, he hopes to help make that goal a reality.

Kulan established Applied TCT in Springfield in 1996, "with the idea of bringing new technology to the Ozarks." For the past year, he has been utilizing and selling a state-of-the art, three-dimensional printer.

Z Corp. printer technology

The printers, manufactured by Z Corporation of Burlington, Mass., produce material objects from 3-D computer-aided drafting software. This process is known as rapid prototyping.

The products are made of finely ground plaster or starch powder, which is bonded with a water and sugar-based mixture and then hardened into shape.

"What this technology is doing is bringing what's on the screen to real life," said Applied TCT's marketer, Sheri Krajew-ski-Bibins. "It's just fascinating. ... To actually be able to pull it out of the screen and hold it in my hand, that's what's unique about it."

According to Kulan, Z Corp. is the only producer of these printing machines, and Applied TCT is one of 12 dealers in the country.

Shape up or ship out

Products taking various shapes and for numerous purposes are formed by the printer; things like shoes, tools, fighter pilot joysticks, furniture handles, shelving brackets, automobile parts, stadiums, buildings, moveable ball bearings, dentures, skulls, arteries, cell structures, cell phones, figurines and model cars. And each can take on a stiff or flexible shape, depending on the materials used, Kulan said.

According to Applied TCT technician Chet Smith, product is formed by layer upon layer of powder mixed with the bonding solution.

Once a CAD module is imported into the 3-D software, he said, it is virtually sliced into paper-thin layers, with each layer having its own pattern. That information is then shipped to the printer about five layers at a time.

The printer reads each layer and disperses the bonding liquid to the correct spots, solidifying the powder, Smith said, until the module takes shape. Once printing is complete, the finished mod-eule is vacuumed and dusted off, then is sprayed with a hardener.

He said the print jobs can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 10 hours, depending on the size, but on average it takes three to four hours to print a prototype.

Forming the idea

Kulan said the printer idea came from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor named David Wallace. The idea formed after Wallace noticed the outcome of a maple syrup and pancake mixture left on a plate: it hardened into a solid shape. Wallace adapted that principal to this new technology, Kulan said.

Kulan said the Z Corp. printers, which use standard ink jet cartridges, have been on the market for four years, but the technology is six years old.

The first machines were monochrome printers, but last June, Z Corp. an-nounced a full-color printer. "It is actually the only prototyping machine that can produce multicolor parts," Kulan said.

Why prototype?

Rapid prototyping has been around for about 15 years, Kulan said, and it is done for several reasons: to confirm a design; find design errors; fit parts together; create appearance models for feedback from customers or associates; design, production and assembly training; and for presentations. They are used in various fields, he added, including the manufacturing, architectural, mechanical, medical, educational, aerospace, advertising and marketing industries.

Krajewski-Bibins gave the example of a marketing firm proposing a new look for a can of soda. She said the design may be presented with a two-dimensional poster, or a full-color, life-sized model of the can with the new design, printed on Applied TCT's machine. She feels the latter is a step above the 2-D poster.

"Having the tangible product in your hand, I think, is just really powerful," she said. "There are endless opportunities for people in this area and what they can do with this technology."

One company that has benefited from a printed prototype is Neosho's K&S Wire, a manufacturer of wire products. K&S Wire engineer Terry Slinkard said Applied TCT assisted in a project to redesign a latch for a pet taxi by printing a prototype of a plastic cover for the latch.

"It's very nice for prototyping and working on new concepts to find the bugs," Slinkard said. "That's what we were able to accomplish with the help of (Applied) TCT printing these parts out. We have just tooled and produced the first parts from this concept."

Kulan said his company also has printed products for Fasco Motors, Dynatek Dalta Scientific Instruments Inc., Briggs & Stratton, O'Sullivan Furniture, HOK Sport, Friskies, Hallmark Cards, Essex, Dayco, Harshaw Research, John Zink, Repella and Bass Pro.

Applied TCT is classified as Z Corp.'s Midwest dealer, but Kulan said the company's target range is centered in Springfield and ranges to Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., and Tulsa, Okla.

Environmentally friendly

A feature well-liked by educational facilities, Kulan said, is that no toxic materials are involved only plaster, starch and sugar. "You could eat the parts, I suppose not that you would want to, but you could. They wouldn't hurt you. We have a very environmentally friendly machine."

Also, all of the plaster powder used during each printing run is recycled. It is swept up by a vacuum tube and used again during the next run, Smith said.

The bottom line

They key to rapid prototyping is obviously speed, Kulan said. "What sets this particular technology apart is that it is very fast," he said. "It is probably four or five times faster than anything else."

On top of that, he added, it costs less because it uses inexpensive materials. He said material costs are $1 per cubic inch of product. What is expensive, however, is the actual printing machines. Kulan said the monochrome printer starts at $40,000, while the full-color printer is $67,500. Educational buyers receive a discount, he added.

Kulan said needing one or two prototypes a week would justify buying a machine, but for anything less than that, Applied TCT could make the parts on a price-per-cost basis, which ranges from $100 to $1,200 retail.

"We both sell the machinery and the supplies, as well as do what's called service bureau work," Kulan said.

Thus far, no one in Springfield has purchased one of the printers. But Kulan said that the University of Minnesota bought one, and Washington University in St. Louis and Crowder College in Neosho are in the process of buying. He added that Applied TCT is offering a free print to those interested in seeing their own product.

The need for speed

In its five-year history, Applied TCT has evolved into an "engineering productivity firm," Kulan said. He said its traditional clients are engineers for engineering and manufacturing companies.

"We basically offer tools and training that help (products) to work faster, more efficiently, more effectively and with fewer errors in order that they can get to market faster, that is, so they can speed up their product development," he said.

"An engineer's life is full of change ... and you want to get through those changes faster. We have ideas and tools and methodologies that help companies improve their design processing and product development."